Fidelis
by renegadewriter8
Summary: "I'm not Roy! Stop pretending I'm someone I'm not, stop it Kaldur, just…" Art based-Prompt! Spoilers for Season 1 Finale!


**Title: Fidelis** (892 words) by **ren**

**Chapters:** 1/1

**Fandom:** **Young Justice (Cartoon)**

**Rating:** Teen And Up Audiences

**Warning:** No Archive Warnings Apply, **MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 FINALE!**

**Relationships:** Roy Harper/Kaldur'ahm

**Characters:** Roy Harper, Red Arrow, Kaldur'ahm, Aqualad

**Author's Notes:**  
- Fidelis means faithful, loyal and true, qualities that I see in Kaldur.  
- Written for a **yj_anon_meme**art prompt.  
- Also posted this in April XP

**Prompt based and this beautiful pic by chyldea: .tumblr t umblr_m378p7d4361r0ef0yo1 _ 1280. jpg (delete spaces)**

**00000000000000**

Kaldur doesn't understand. He thought he did, put himself in the other's shoes and all he could perceive from that position was grief and anger.

"Damn it Kaldur leave me alone!" The rage, unrestrained and cutting would have driven Kaldur away a long time ago, even if he had thought it was wrong. But it didn't, and it wouldn't. Not when there was an undertone of fear, despair, and pure _hurt_ in it.

Two months had passed since they parted in the Watchtower. Two months of tracking the other down, and being avoided. Not any more. The Atlantean would not leave Roy's old apartment until he understood why the archer was running from him as if he were the plague.

"Roy, do not push me away." He begged.

"I'm not Roy! Stop pretending I'm someone I'm not, stop it Kaldur, just… _fuck_… STOP IT!" Ro- … the clone grabbed his head in frustration, the carefully hidden fear breaking through, for a moment turning his angry tone into a sorrowful cry.

Kaldur couldn't bare seeing him like this. Clone or not, _this_ Roy had feelings too, and they were slowly tearing him apart.

"Please." He took a step closer, arms out, palms up, showing he had no intentions of harming him. The Atlantean's eyes were narrowed in sadness, his heart pounding against his chest and twisting in ways he had never imagined possible. "Please, do not do this. Do not shut yourself off from your friends, from your brothers, from…" He paused, arms falling limply to his side, turning his head away as grief assaulted him once more. "…me." He breathed in a tortured whisper.

For a moment, it seemed like the clone wanted to reach out, to say…something, something that could provide some sort of comfort for his aching friend, but he shook his head, anger once again starting to build up, as if Kaldur's words had done nothing but provide more fuel to a fire that had burned for days and had slowly started to calm.

This, this right here was why he wanted the other as far away as possible.

"You don't get it do you." Red Arrow's hands shook. "You're just too stubborn to accept the truth."

"Then tell me, what _is_ the truth." Now it was Kaldur's turn to be angry, Kaldur's voice that turned sharp as a blade.

"I'M NOT HIM!"

Kaldur shook his head, the same phrase over and over had been thrown at him for days, every time they met, it was spat in his face. Roy was right... he _didn't_ get it.

"You've said that-"

"No, Kaldur." Red Arrow walked up to him, chests almost touching, faces apart by mere inches, tortured eyes staring into the cool liquid of one's that were also hurting but had hope swimming in their depth. "I, am not…" His voice lowered, eyes softening with anguish. Kaldur started when a hand was gently placed on his chest, above his heart. "I am not the one you love."

Silence.

The room was bathed in it. The lighting was getting dimmer, the natural light from outside disappearing with the day.

Somewhere in the building the ticking of a clock echoed.

Kaldur's eyes were wide, locked on the redhead. Red Arrow's eyes no longer hard and unforgiving, but drained and defeated, locked on his quivering hand still placed over his most precious treasure.

A treasure that wasn't his.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Kaldur brought his own webbed hand to grasp Roy's gloved one.

"Roy-"

"Not him." But there was no fire behind it now.

"_Roy_." Kaldur was soft, but firm, giving Red Arrow no choice but to listen. "We have told Superboy many times that he is not Superman, he is his own person, with his own feelings and dreams. You, may not be the Roy I first met…" He brought both hands to cup Red Arrow's face, gently lifting it so they were staring at each other. "But you are the Roy I first loved."

Roy, Red Arrow, Roy Harper's clone… it didn't matter. In that moment, he didn't care who, or what he was. The redhead could only search in those pale green eyes for the _truth_ behind the words, finding them, drowning in them, being freed by them.

He sank to his knees, Kaldur following right behind, always near, always there to bring him back. Tears fell, mixing with the soothing hands that held him. The fear and pain that had weighed on him ever since there had been time to stop and really _think_ about the implications behind all this madness were wiped away, and he wept harder in relief.

"I loved _you_ first."

Roy's hands shot up, grasping Kaldur's wrists like a life line.

_Don't let go._

He silently begged.

_Don't ever stop loving _me.

Kaldur laid his forehead against Roy's head, putting all his love in the action, fingers tangling soothingly in the red hair, the cries of his beloved tearing at his heart, but knowing that they had to fall, that with every tear, the doubts that had plagued Roy were leaving, and soon… soon there would be no more doubts, soon all that would echo through the now dark apartment would be cries of love.

But for now, Kaldur would hold him, help chase away the last of those doubts.

"Always remember, I loved _you_, first."

**FIN**


End file.
